Please can I get some help on a problem I have with my fish

Hey @halfway

I agree with what's being said about the diet and them not being wounds from fighting but have no idea as to what disease it may be.

I'd swap the bloodworms for frozen daphnia (helps with digestion I believe).
Also make sure their base diet includes lots of vegetable matter and very importantly some spirulina algae.

 

Hi Jack, could you please assist by recommending vegetable matter and how to feed as well as helping to identify where I could obtain spirulina algae from please?

 

Howzit,

Both are most easily provided via appropriate fish foods.

I use "Nutrafin Max" spirulina flakes for my algae eaters but most of the top brands will work... they reckon if it smells really bad then there is enough spirulina in it.
As for vegetable flakes, I buy clear no-name plastic bags for about R30 but something like "TetraVeggie Spirulina Enhanced Flake" will work.

I'd ideally mix that 2 parts veggie flake to 1 part spirulina flake for a staple diet then feed frozen daphnia on Saturdays and nothing on Sundays, throw in some newly hatched baby brine shrimp 20 minutes after their staple meal every now and then and in small amounts. That's just what I'd aim for, chances are everything you're doing feeding wise is okay, though I do think blood worms twice a week is somewhat heavy for the Malawis and should probably be replaced with something more easily digestible.

Also take into account what spider is saying about bloom worm bringing in parasites, I have read that it happens and hence have never used the stuff.

 

I also know some people feed their fish NORI. the stuff you use to make sushi

 

You could try the Aquafin Pro Spirulina flake if you can get it. I use it for my Malawis and all is good so far. I have never fed bloodworm as I was told not to by the guy I got my Malawi's from. I have only Mbuna's though and they eat plant and vegetable matter mainly. There are quite a few fish in your tank and it looks as if the Malawis are still juveniles or sub juveniles, maybe some are now starting to reach sexual maturity.....and that would explain why all has been fine till now......all it takes is one male to go on a rampage to cause lesions on your fish like that. A tip from one of the other forum members I picked up and experimented with myself is not to feed any red flakes/food to your malawis rather only all green spirulina based flakes. The red flakes seem to increase aggression, I tried this and definitely noticed a difference. It looks like you have a mixed bag of cichlids in your tank with African lake and South American cichlids combined. This poses problems with feeding requirements and compatibility. Consider keeping a species tank of only compatible African lake cichlids or only compatible South Americans. In the long run it might be easier to keep them happy.

 

Guys thanks so much for the valuable information. My course of action from here forward is as follows : 1. Stop feeding frozen bloodworm in any quantities, 2. Treat the problem as a parasite and monitor progress, 3. Change the diet of my fish to include more vegetation type food, 4. Once the parasite has been sorted, offer some fish in the classifieds and depopulate the tank.

I appreciate the time you guys have taken to assist :beer:

 

hey man looks like fungus to me, that i have had in the past
way i treated it was to increase my water changes and added table salt into the water
it was caused buy poor water conditions and fish getting injuries

 

Hi guys,

Firstly thanks so much for all the assistance with the problem I have. It is humbling when you realise just how little knowledge you have when a problem stares you in the face. Some of you are really knowledgeable and for this I am grateful for you for taking the time to assist me. Funnily enough, this problem made me realise that I had an even bigger problem I was unaware of viz. overpopulating my tank.

Just as feedback, I have been working hard to sort the issue out. The entire filtration system is thrown out after every water change of 25% and that includes the "volcanic" rock. I have changed water every 5th day and dosed with fungal medication. I have added salt on each change. So far I have had two changes and it looks like the spread has been contained with some fish showing improvement. What is noticeable is that the fish affected are no longer scraping themseves against the substrate.

Another thing I am trying is improving filtration. As mentioned before I have a built in filter that I thought handled the tank adequately. Upon reflection, I noticed that the flow of water is not great on the opposite end of the built in filter. I have also noticed that deposits of fish poo is greater on this opposite side when cleaning. As an absolute "hail mary" I have purchased a cheap 1000l/h Chinese filter and placed this in the "quiet" area of the tank opposite the current filter. It has been in for only two days but it seems to be making a difference in the water quality and more importantly, the fish seem to be more active as more air is being introduced to the tank. I will clean this filter every day and was surprised at how much gunge was in it after the initial 24 hours. Maybe just maybe because of the overpopulation I currently have, my original filter is struggling to cope? Can anyone give an opinion on this? Going forward hopefully the infection will clear and I plan to cull the population of fish by roughly 50% and remove the unsightly chinese filter.

Once again, thanks to those who assisted.

 

Sorry one final observation I forgot to add in my previous post. I now test the water utilising the throw away strips in the Tetra 6 in 1 testing kit. Its quick and easy and interestingly my GH,KH,pH and Cl readings were all within acceptable levels while my NO2 and NO3 levels were slightly elevated. I think this may be yet another indication that I have too many fish in my tank.

 

........Or inadequate biological filtration/water change regiame

 

Thanks for the update. It's good to know when something works It definitely sounds to me like a combo of overpopulation and not enough filtration caused problems with water quality.

 

@halfway it looks like you are on the right track. As @mattie says the problem now might be that you are killing the biological filtration with the cleaning regime, hence the elevated readings. Remember to only rinse your sponges in tank water drained from the tank during a water change. One or three squeezes and shakes of the sponge is sufficient. Never rinse them in tap water as any chlorine will kill the beneficial bacteria. Your lava rock etc should really never need major cleaning if your water is prefiltered before it reaches the rocks. Prefilter with sponge, filter pad, filter wool or similar and clean the debris that accumulates on that, rather leave your lava rock. Water changes of 20 to 30% once a week should be sufficient. Be carefull of fiddling to much, lots of tank crashes occur because of to much fiddling and worrying about water testing. Half the commercial test kits are not hugely accurate anyway ! If your fish are locally bred they have pretty much adapted to the local water conditions they were bred and raised in and will do well enough in the same local water they are used to. Often, like you have experienced the fish themselves are the best indicators of problems in the tank or not

 

Cheers Brent, appreciate the advice. Will update in a few weeks time regarding progress.

 

Ok so its not a few weeks, but good news is the problem is under control with the sores on the fish healing well. The abrasions are only visible on the worst of the affected fish and should be gone by tomorrow. Thanks so much for the help guys, much appreciated. I will give this a week or so after the last fish has healed and then I'm offloading half the tanks population.

 

nice to here a positive result